Kobe Brown’s big performance leads Missouri Tigers basketball to a win over Texas A&M
Missouri men’s basketball entered Saturday’s game having lost four games in a row. The main thing missing in each of those defeats was as clear as day: Kobe Brown.
Brown hadn’t looked like himself, held to single-digit scoring in each of those defeats.
But Brown had a bounce-back performance against Texas A&M on Saturday. He scored 21 points to lead Mizzou to a 70-66 victory over the Aggies at Reed Arena.
“Everything he brings,” forward Ronnie DeGray III said, “toughness, rebounding, facilitating, scoring — it helps our team do the most.”
Brown, a junior forward, had six assists and six rebounds as well, making him the first Tiger to have multiple games with at least 20 points and six assists in the same season since Jordan Clarkson in 2013-14. And Brown made 11 of 12 shots at the free-throw line. But most importantly, Brown stepped up as a leader and made the plays that closed out the game for Mizzou (9-13, 3-6 SEC) after the Aggies (15-8, 4-6 SEC) had a late surge.
“(Kobe Brown) puts so much time into trying to be a good player,” Missouri head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “He’s watching more film than he’s ever watched in his career, just everything it takes.
“... When you have good guys and guys that put in what he puts into it and the level of character he is, you want it to go for him. And just happy to see him play a good game.”
The Tigers shot 56.5% from the field — their second-highest mark of the season — and 38.5% from deep.
Martin has expressed his desire for Brown to play with more aggressiveness, emphasizing the importance of him driving into the paint and creating shots. Brown took that message to heart on Saturday.
Brown found his groove and took control of the game early. He attacked mismatches and forced Texas A&M defenders to foul him for free chances at the line. And he seemingly couldn’t miss; he hit all three of his attempts from the field and made each of his seven shots at the free-throw line in the first half.
“I’m not really sure if there was a specific point (where I was feeling it),” Brown said. “I would just say just getting to the line and making free throws really, that helped keep me going. Just being efficient and beneficial to the team any way I could.”
The Tigers held a 37-32 lead over the Aggies at halftime behind Brown’s 13 points. They shot 59.1% from the field in the opening frame and scored 1.321 points per possession.
Brown’s performance opened things up for everyone on the roster. With around 15-and-a-half minutes left in the game, he drove into the paint and was quickly met with a double-team. Amari Davis was left by himself in the corner. Brown whipped a pass his way, and Davis drained the three-pointer that gave Mizzou a 46-38 lead — tying its largest advantage of the day at eight points.
But as so often has been the case this season, Missouri allowed Texas A&M back in the game: The Aggies took a 55-53 lead with under 10 minutes left, prompting the crowd to go wild and Martin to call a timeout.
Brown hadn’t been able to do much when the same occurred in recent games — Missouri gave up similar leads in four of their last six losses — but Saturday was a different story.
“The first thing that was said in the timeout was, ‘Just calm down,’“ Brown said. “At the end of the day, it was just two points. No matter how loud the crowd got, we were still in the game.
“We’ve been in those situations a lot lately. So we just knew we had to capitalize on this one. We can’t let that go the other way no more.”
Brown had two crucial assists to help give the Tigers the lead back, finding Jarron “Boogie” Coleman for a triple and then DaJuan Gordon for a layup with under three minutes left.
“Kobe does a great job with poise when two defenders come,” DeGray said, “you know, read and make the right decision. ... It’s really great from him in finding guys to get open.”
On Missouri’s next possession, Brown threw down a dunk that extended his team’s lead to 66-61 with under two minutes left.
Still, Texas A&M trimmed the lead to two and nearly tied the game on a trip to the free-throw line. But once again Brown was the man to get the job done.
After being fouled with under 9 seconds left, Brown made two shots at the charity stripe to seal the deal for the Tigers.
For once, the Tigers didn’t wash a winnable game down the drain. Brown’s clutch performance was the biggest reason why.
“Good win,” Martin said. “Just happy for our guys’ resiliency to be able to fight. ... Some painful losses, it’s hard to sleep at night. But we’ve grown from them. I’m really proud because they keep coming back, they keep getting better.”
Here are some key takeaways from the game:
Still no Javon Pickett for Mizzou
Javon Pickett was out for the second consecutive game because of a head injury he suffered against Iowa State last Saturday.
The senior guard wasn’t dressed in uniform, but he did put up some shots with the team a little over an hour before tipoff, which should be a positive sign moving forward.
With Pickett unavailable, Davis was inserted back into the starting lineup. He was joined by Coleman, Gordon, Trevon Brazile and Kobe Brown.
Martin was quick to make substitutions, repeatedly rotating players in and out throughout Saturday’s contest. All nine players available for Missouri (Jordan Wilmore remains out with a back injury) saw game action.
Kaleb Brown continues to earn an increased role in Pickett’s absence. He played a career-high 28 minutes and finished with two points, six rebounds, one block and one assist.
“Kaleb did an extraordinary job of facilitating, moving the ball, getting where it had to go, Martin said. “I really thought about starting him this game ... but at the last minute I didn’t want to do it just because this type of environment, his first start, both teams hungry for a win, I didn’t want to do that to him just yet.”
Tigers win on the boards
Missouri out-rebounded Texas A&M 29-21 in Saturday’s win.
The Tigers are now 9-2 this season when they grab more rebounds than their opponent.
The Aggies had the edge on the boards in the first half though. They grabbed 12 rebounds compared to 11 for Mizzou. Six of those were offensive rebounds, which led to nine second-chance points.
“Just make sure to physically block them out,” DeGray said. “Really emphasized that after our second media timeout in the first half because they had a couple more than we did. Coaches were really heavy on us about that.”
Four Tigers score in double-figures
For the ninth time this season, Missouri had four players in double-digit scoring. The Tigers are 7-2 in those games.
In addition to Kobe Brown’s 21 points, Coleman had 12, Davis had 11 and DeGray had 11.
Those four players combined to shoot 34 of Mizzou’s 46 attempts from the field, good for 73.9%.
This story was originally published February 5, 2022 at 5:43 PM.
